


Headcanons of the Fifth Blight

by arctickchild



Series: my friends, we are all glorious [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fifth Blight, Gen, Headcanon ficlet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 14:53:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6663202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arctickchild/pseuds/arctickchild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of fic-like headcanons for the we are all glorious AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Headcanons of the Fifth Blight

> anonymous asked: Tell me something about Merrill in your Fifth Blight AU.

The clans owe much to the children of Ghilan'nain; for centuries they have walked together, roaming the lands side by side as necessity and whim alike pull them. When the People fled Halamshiral, it is the halla that they went to for aid; it was the halla that chose to take on the burden of their aravels, the halla that cried with them in the darkness to gods long since lost.

But there was a time before, as there always is; there was a time when it was not the halla that the elvhen relied upon, when they sang their gratitude not the the hunter's chosen but to another, forgotten in the bitterness and strain of their long exile.

It is a Keeper's job to remember, and so when Dixon returns to camp under cover of darkness, a litter of starving wolf cubs tucked into their shirt, it is Merrill who helps them fetch water and fresh meat for the pups; it is Merrill who takes the poor creatures to Cyril, who holds Dixon's hair back as they insist on testing every potion their soul-twin develops.

Merrill is the one who reassures their battered clans; while the wolves slowly recover under Dixon's watchful eye, Merrill reminds the hunters of Halamshiral, of the Emerald Knights who rode into battle with their lupine partners. Dixon enlists volunteers and Cyril handles training but it's Merrill who convinces Deshanna, Merrill who rallies the last of her own clan to support the First's efforts, Merrill who tends to the inevitable wounds and helps keep clan Lavellan-Sabrae running when Dixon and Cyril disappear in the middle of the night.

Merrill adapts Dixon's ritual into use by the clan; Merrill helps suspicious hunters and rambunctious pups train and grow together, Merrill learns to find other orphaned pups and cares for them. Dixon and Cyril return, and Merrill is the one who shows them to their partners.

Dixon takes over the training; Merrill is the one who navigates the clans' way through the mountains, who keeps them all one step ahead of the Blight, and when Dixon finds Skyhold Merrill is the one who goes with them to make sure it's clear, who helps build the emergency exit through the dungeon, who directs the clearing of the ruined grounds and shores up the damaged walls so they can set up camp.

Dixon brings in mercenaries to help with rebuilding; Dixon builds supply lines to the isolated pockets of resistance, who sketches out the defenses they need to set up and the grid to follow for planting crops. Dixon builds Skyhold into a proper home, an isolated paradise in the middle of nowhere, but it's Merrill who keeps it running when Dixon and Cyril leave on one of their insane scouting missions, Merrill who digs until her hands are cracked and uses her blood to whisper health into the soil. Merrill sets up the food storage and infirmary and shows Adaar and their group how the walls need to be structured.

Deshanna dies the first winter they spend in Skyhold; age and grief have taken their toll, but she is the first Keeper to die with a wolf at her side in the history of the Dalish clans, surrounded by the reborn Emerald Knights and on grounds worked by the hands of her people, and when Dixon buries her beneath an oak sapling in the garden it is Merrill that they give her ring to, Merrill that they kneel before and pledge their loyalty like a proper knight.

This is the first and last time the clan follows the example of their First; in the garden of a home Merrill built for them, kneeling in earth enriched by her efforts, and it is the first time since the Blight began that Merrill looks at her people and dares to hope for a future.

 

**Author's Note:**

> please direct all questions to arctick-child.tumblr.com


End file.
